Needle-guide.



0. L. LAWSON & J. H. REED.

NEEDLE GUIDE. APPLICATION FILED MAR-23.1915.

1,177,118, v Patented Mar.28,1916.

v 5 1 E IH- \X/IJFNEE'%Z/ lug/gym vs:

65% $611. @MCLQL 6 M M oSoAR It LAWSON AND mitts REEID, or LYNN,MASSACHUSETTS.

teammates.

has for its object to provide a needle guide which will support thecurved hooked needle at the time when it is being pushed into the holeformed in the work by the awl.

It is important that the needle guide shall support the needle at apoint as closely adjacent the surface of the work as possible; that itshall be out of the way when. the needle rises with the loop; and thatit will nevertheless have its lowermost position varied in accordancewith the thickness of the work. 'Also,,it is desirable to have itsupport the needle when the needle is out of the work and is thensubjected to the strain placed upon it by the under thread.

It will be understood that the tension of the under thread and theaction of the loop spreader both tend tosubject the needle toconsiderable strain. We accomplish these results by controlling thelowest position'of the needle guide by the presser foot. We believeourselves to be the first tocontrol the position of a needle guide bythe presser foot and therefore desire to claim this invention broadly.

The invention will be fully understood by reference to the followingspecification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, andthe novel features thereof are pointed out and clearly defined in theclaims at the close of this specification.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is aside elevation of a shoe sewing machineembodying our invention, the parts being in the position occupied whenthe needle and needle guide are at the top of their stroke. Fig. 2 is asimilar view showing the position of the needle guide when the needle isin the work. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1.Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the elbow lever on which the needle guideis m unted Fig. 5 is a front s tifitation of Letters rattnt.

Patented'Mar. 28, 1916.

Application filed March 23, 1915. Serial No. 16,452.

elevation of the needle guide and Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the.needle guide.

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to Fig. 1, there is shown at10 the presser foot, at 11 the needle, at 12 the awl, at 13 the worksupport, and at let the shuttle, these parts being in general the sameas those described in said prior application to which we have heretoforemade reference.

The needle 11 is supported on a needle segment 15 which oscillates aboutthe shaft 16. On a sleeve 17 (see Fig. 4) having two arms 18 and 19 is.placed the needle guide 20, (see particularly Figs. 5 and 6). The needleguide proper. consists of a block 20 having a screw threaded stud 21integral therewith, said screw threaded stud 21 is adapted to passthrough the hole 22 in the arm19 and to be secured in position by a nut23, see Fig. 3. The block 21 has formed therein a curved hole 24, seeFig. 6, of a size and shape corresponding to the size and shapeof theneedle. For convenience the s1eevel7 together with the two integral arms18 and 19 may be referred to as the needle guide support. The needleguide support is oscillated on the shaft 16 in time with the stitchforming instrumentalities by means of a cam 24, mounted on the camshaft25.

At 26 is shown a cam lever pivoted at 27 to a frame of the machine andprovided with a cam follower 28 engaging the cam groove 29 in the cam24:. The cam lever 26 is connected with the arm 18 of the needle guidesupport, by two links 30. and 31 which together form a toggle joint. Itwill therefore be seen that if the two links 30 and 31 bexma-i-ntainedin a fixed relation one to the other the needle guide support will beoscillated about the shaft 16, and will have a predetermined length ofstroke. It will also be seen that the lowermost limit of movement of theneedle guide may be varied, if at the proper time in the stroke of thecam lever 26, the two links 30 and 31 are moved relatively to each otheri. 6., to break the toggle joint, and permit the further upward movementof the cam lever 26 without thereafter changing the position of theneedle guide support. For this purpose we provide a member 32 pivoted at33 to the frame of the machine and having therein a slot 34. Said member32 which we term for convenience the controller, is also provided with aslot 35 in which is located a pin 36 fast on the tail of the presserfoot supporting member 37. When the presser foot 10 is raised, as forinstance when a thicker piece of work is inserted, the tail of thepresser foot supporting member 37 is depressed since the presser footsupporting member 37 is pivoted to the frame as shown at 41. The pin 36is also depressed and the controller 32 is swung about the pivot 33changing the position of the slot 34. The slot 34 consists of a straightportion a. and an arc-shaped portion 7) connected therewith. The pin 38by means of which the proximate ends of the links 30 and 31 areconnected is movable in the slot and as long as it remains in thestraight portion of the slot the links 30 and 31 are maintained in afixed position relatively to each other. When the pivot pin 38 reachesthe are shaped portion of the slot Z), the two links 30 and 31 are freeto move relatively to each other thereby breaking the toggle andpermitting the cam lever 26 to be thereafter moved upwardly withoutaffecting the position of the needle guide. It will therefore be seenthat as the cam rotates the needle guide is moved from the positionshown in Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2, and that when the pin38 reaches the beginning of the slot Z), the needle guide rests and theremainder of the movement of the cam lever 26 and link 31 produced bythe cam 24 is lost motion. It will also be seen that the position of thepresser foot changes the height of the point of union between thestraight slot 0; and the are shaped slot 6 so that when the needle guidecomes to rest the point is controlled positively by the position of thepresser foot. It will therefore be seen that the needle guide alwaysrests at a point practically in contact with the upper surface of thepresser foot regardless of the thickness of the work. The movement ofthe parts is so timed that the needle guide will remain stationary untilthe needlev is about to come out of the work, then the needle and needleguide move up together until they reach the upper limit of movement.This arrangement is such that the needle is continuously supported andtherefore is not-likely to be bent and then broken by the strains towhich it is constantly subjected.

WVhat we claim is:

1. In a shoe sewing machine, in combination with a presser foot, aneedle guide. separate from the presser foot and mounted to oscillatetoward and away from the work, means for oscillating the needle guideand means under the control of the presser foot to vary the position ofthe lower end of the path of movement of the needle guide.

2. In a shoe sewing machine, and in combination with a presser foot, aneedle guide means to oscillate the said needle guide, said meansincluding a toggle joint, and a controller the movement of which iscontrolled by the presser foot operating upon said toggle joint to breakthe said toggle joint at a point determined by the position of thepresser foot. y

3. In a shoe sewing machine, and in combination with a presser foot, aneedle guide.

means to oscillate the said needle guide;

said means including a toggle joint. a controller having a slot, oneportion of which is straight and another portion of which extends at anangle to said straight portion. a pivot for said toggle joint guided insaid slot, said controller being connected to the presser foot wherebythe position of the apex of the slot is varied by the presser foot tobreak the toggle joint at a point determined by the position of thepresser foot.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signatures, in presence of twowitnesses.

OSCAR L. LAWSON. JAMES H. REED.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

